Ok. Snape probably has RSD/Rejection sensitivity dysphoria. RSD is common in people that are neurodivergent (mainly adhd. “RSD is often associated with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) but can also occur in individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) or other mental health conditions.”) It is an extreme sensitivity to rejection either real or perceived. Which causes the person with it to react in various ways which can range from pushing people away/leaving before others can, being depressed, or manipulating people to stay with you.
When Snape saw Lily half smile while he was in a stressful situation he used the term “Mudblood” to refer to Lily (which also applies to himself as he is a Halfblood) effectively pushing her away. He felt rejected by her and the rest of the wizarding world which resulted in this reaction. Snape is already very Autistic coded (because he was based off an autistic man, who even said he was Snape/Snape was him) so it wouldn’t be too far off to say that Snape had RSD which causes him to react in a greater way to rejection than someone without it.
Autistic Snape is my Roman Empire.
Hello, someone who has RSD and wants to spread information about it here, sorry to butt in on your post! (Preamble: I support the reading of autistic Snape, especially given that the man he was based on was also autistic, and it's a fact that there's a fairly high comorbidity with RSD among ASD folks, so I'm not arguing OP's theory by any means, just wanting to give more info).
RSD isn't just an extreme sensitivity to rejection, but is thought to be caused by a difference in brain structure:
Rejection sensitive dysphoria (RSD) is when you experience severe emotional pain because of a failure or feeling rejected. This condition is linked to ADHD and experts suspect it happens due to differences in brain structure. Those differences mean your brain can’t regulate rejection-related emotions and behaviors, making them much more intense.
There's a separate condition known as Rejection Sensitivity, but the difference between it and RSD is emotional dysregulation.
Emotional dysregulation happens when your brain can’t properly regulate the signals related to your emotions. Without that ability to manage them, it’s as if the TV volume control is stuck at a disruptively or painfully high level. In effect, emotional dysregulation is when your emotions are too loud for you to manage, causing feelings of being overwhelmed, uncomfortable or even in pain.
In short, RSD is a result of the person not being able to process and manage negative emotional responses. Their brain does not have the ability to respond to distressing stimulus in a way most people's can, and therefore the distress continues instead of being managed.
And this is very important: RSD isn't just about rejection, it's about a wide array of negative stimulus that gets piled under the label of "rejection" in psychology speak, but can include pretty much anything that causes a negative emotional response.
Emotional dysregulation happens with both rejection sensitivity and RSD. Dysphoria doesn’t. People with rejection sensitivity can do one or more of the following: - Feel severe anxiety or other negative emotions before an anticipated rejection. - Have trouble seeing nonpositive interactions (such as neutral or vague reactions) as anything but rejection and react accordingly. - Overreact to feelings of rejection, leading to behavior that reflects negative emotions like anger, rage, extreme sadness, severe anxiety, etc. While all of those are also possible with RSD, there’s one more component: People with RSD describe feeling an intense — if not overwhelming — level of emotional pain.
"Dysphoria" is the key term here - "a state of feeling very unhappy, uneasy, or dissatisfied." I would argue the implication is that dysphoria refers to a kind of unhappiness or unease that is difficult to live with and causes trauma. This is why, for example, gender dysphoria is a severe enough condition that it warrants the intervention of changing one's gender. For someone who lives with RSD, the intense level of emotional pain it can come with can cause trauma responses, such as lashing out defensively at perceived negative stimuli.
RSD is a spectrum - some people experience it severely, others less so (trauma, especially childhood trauma, ie. that affects someone during child and adolescent development, is likely to be a factor in this). For most people it's a difficult condition to live with because of how it affects social interactions and one's emotional state, but it can also be managed with therapies like CBT. I've learned to identify my emotional responses and how they manifest physically, and am generally able to identify my RSD responses and use reason to remind myself to calm down before I respond to the stimulus. Nevertheless, this requires me to actively manage this response - it is likely (but studies are, as yet, inconclusive) that this is because the brains of people without RSD are able to automatically enact these responses, but since the RSD brain is structured differently, we have to manually manage what others don't have to think about doing.
If we're looking at RSD specific to autism, this website has a whole page on it (I question their stats of RSD occurrence but otherwise find this org reliable):
To understand RSD better, it is really important to recognise its common signs and symptoms: 1. Intense Emotional Reactions: People with RSD often experience overwhelming emotions in response to perceived criticism or rejection. This can manifest as sadness, anxiety, anger, or a deep sense of worthlessness. 2. Hypersensitivity: Small comments or gestures that may seem insignificant to others can trigger profound emotional responses in individuals with RSD. For example a text or whatsapp message not being replied to. This can lead to the person thinking that their friend or family member doesn’t like them anymore, or that they are a bad friend. 3. Avoidance Behaviours: To protect themselves from potential rejection or criticism, those with RSD might avoid social situations, new challenges, or even relationships altogether. Finding it easier to distance themselves, before they get hurt. 4. Perfectionism: People with RSD often set impossibly high standards for themselves to avoid criticism, which can lead to chronic stress and burnout. It’s worth remembering that done is better than perfect. 5. Low Self-Esteem: Chronic exposure to perceived rejection can erode self-esteem, making individuals with RSD feel inherently flawed or unlovable. This is especially true if you are diagnosed as autistic or with ADHD later in life.
RSD isn't just something that happens in the moment. ie. using OP's example of Snape lashing out at Lily, RSD doesn't just get activated in that moment, but is something Snape would be living with daily. It would potentially inform a constant experience of some degree of anxiety, and inform pre-emptive behaviors such as those mentioned above. Again, RSD is a spectrum, and not everyone who has it will experience the above (in fact, you would need to have very bad RSD to fully experience all five things listed). Some people may only experience anxiety at a perceived imminent conflict, some might only have an RSD reaction part way into a conflict.
I hope this is useful to someone, whether in understanding themselves, a friend, or just writing meta about a character. It's meant to help others learn about neurodiversity and be more respectful and empathetic, and I would not like for it to be used to uwu-ify characters like Snape or justify pitying them.
OP wrote a great and valid post and this is not directed at them, but at others in this fandom who might read it and draw the kinds of conclusions I see get shared often, because I see this happen frequently and it's uncomfortable at best and insulting/triggering at worst: if I see anyone use information in this post to write hot takes like "poor sevvy was anxious all the time I can't .·°՞(≧□≦)՞°·." I will block you on sight. As a neurodiverse person with abuse trauma I'm really reaching my limit with this fandom and it's disrespectful objectification of trauma and neurodiversity.
I know Snape is a fictional character, but the issues read into him are often very real to people who are in this fandom and probably in your everyday life whether you're aware of it or not. The pitying, the uwu-ification, the babygirl-ification is disrespectful, condescending, and objectifying and I'm tired of how prevalent it is. Please stop romanticizing suffering. There is no reason you can't engage with a character and a reading of them as ND or traumatized without being respectful and empathetic in the process. I'm happy to expand on this for anyone interested, but will not be arguing with anyone over it. Like I said, I'll just block you on site - if for no other reason than my own mental health.
Thank you for this (I just gave the more simplified explanation but I probably should’ve said more because I forgot how this fandom is sometimes) I also have RSD which is one of the reasons why I connected it to Snape, but I did forget people like to romanticize disorders which is.. really weird and not ok. (I’ve seen videos of people romanticizing BPD and it’s- triggering honestly, like no. Stop that.) But anyways, thank you again for taking the time to explain RSD more in depth to give others a better understanding of it, and also thank you for adding the part of not romanticizing, uwu-fying, etc disorders 🖤
